


Rescue Mission

by Eggling



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Gen, a bit of blood but nothing major
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-29 01:43:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13916682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggling/pseuds/Eggling
Summary: “But that’s what Imean, Jamie, you can’t just go around throwing knives at people -”Jamie mounts a rescue for Polly, but it doesn't go quite right.





	Rescue Mission

Voices were echoing down the narrow passage – first a stranger’s, then Polly’s. Jamie felt a rush of relief when he heard her, but it was quickly replaced by horror.

“I don’t know anything!” Polly was saying. “They could be anywhere by now.” Jamie crept towards the mouth of the passage. His grip on his knife tightened when he heard Polly cry out in pain. “I’m telling the truth!”

To his dismay, the passage ended high above the cave floor. The only path down looked treacherous, and Jamie knew he would not be able to make it with a knife in his hand. He would be of no use to Polly if he fell and stabbed himself, after all. At least her captor was unfamiliar to him, he thought, and apparently alone. Most likely one of the gang’s lesser members, left behind while the ringleader led the others on the wild goose chase the Doctor had laid for them.

The guard was pulling on Polly’s hair, making her cry out again, and Jamie felt a flash of anger. The Doctor had only asked him to find out where she was being held, not mount a rescue, but the situation had now changed. The others had not seen Polly tied up, terrified, in pain, probably thinking that she had been abandoned. He knew he could not leave her there. Scrambling a little way down the path, Jamie winced as he sent rocks tumbling down onto the cave floor.

The guard turned, clenching his fists. “Who’s there?” he called. Jamie pressed himself into a crack in the rock face, breathing hard. Apparently satisfied, the guard turned back to Polly. “See, your little friends aren’t coming to rescue you. We’re tracking down that Doctor already.” He cracked his knuckles pointedly. “There’s no point in hiding where the other two are.”

Fury was bubbling through Jamie’s veins now. If this man thought he could threaten Polly and get away with it, then he was mistaken. _What would the Doctor do?_ he asked himself. Surely he would have thought up some brilliant plan already. But the Doctor was not here, and there was no time for plans now. Polly might reveal something – or worse still, the guard might decide that she was useless to them. Stepping forwards, Jamie forced himself to let go of the hilt of his knife, instead holding up his hands as if in surrender. “We’re right here,” he said.

“Jamie!” Polly twisted around in her chair, straining against the ropes that bound her. “You weren’t supposed to come back!”

“Plans change,” Jamie begun to ease himself further down the path, clinging to the cliff face with one hand. Slowly does it, he told himself. Don’t want to slip. Not now.

“Where’s Ben?”

“On his way.” The Doctor always said that it was easy to see through his lies. Jamie could only hope that familiarity had bred ease on that front, or that the guard was dim enough to believe him. He was shaking, legs threatening to give out beneath him, and he clutched at a spur of rock anxiously.

“What are you doing?” The guard had been so quiet that Jamie had almost forgotten he posed any threat. “I – I forbid you from going any further!” Leaping towards the cliff, he felt around his belt, as if wanting to pull out a knife.

Jamie unsheathed his own in response, holding it up so the guard could see. “Want one?” he asked, drawing his hand back. The guard flinched away, covering his face with his hands. Jamie closed one eye to check his aim, but hesitated. The cave was cramped, with little room for error, and if he were to hit Polly instead…

Before he could make up his mind, the guard edged back towards Polly, reaching out for her hair again. Jamie threw the knife instinctively, almost losing his balance as he did so. To his relief, the knife went wide of both the guard and Polly, striking the wall and clattering to the ground uselessly. The guard grinned up at him triumphantly. “What are you going to do without a weapon, boy?” To Jamie’s surprise, he did not bother to make for the knife, instead flexing his hands. “I could break her like a twig before you even make it down here.”

“Aye, you’re right.” Jamie carried on down the path, trying to seem unworried. “I shouldn’t have thrown away the knife.”

The guard grasped at Polly’s hair again, and Jamie winced. “Don’t come any closer!”

“Are ye still afraid of me?” It was clear that the man was terrified – perhaps more concerned about punishment from his leader than anything Jamie could do. Had Polly’s life not been hanging in the balance, Jamie might even have felt sorry for him. “I threw away my knife.” He glanced down at the cave floor, checking how high he was, then halted. There was no time to waste on thinking and guessing and aiming now. He knew that if he lost the element of surprise, the guard would make a grab for the other knife, and he did not stand a chance in close combat. “I reckon ye could break me as easily as ye could break her.”

“Jamie, don’t!” Polly cried out.

Apparently emboldened by Jamie’s compliance, the guard stepped forwards, squaring his shoulders. Good, Jamie thought. He made a clearer target this way. But now Polly was behind him, and if he should step aside at the last moment… “You threw away your knife,” he repeated, eyes narrowing as if searching for the trick in Jamie’s words.

“Aye, I did.” Best not to give him much time to think about it. Bending down, Jamie reached into his sock. “That’s why I always carry a spare.” He drew the knife and threw it in one fluid motion, scrambling down the rest of the track without pausing to see where it would land. The guard let out a heavy grunt of pain, and he was filled with relief. His aim had been true.

The guard was staring blankly down at the knife embedded in his shoulder. He raised one hand to touch the blood that dripped from the wound, examining it curiously, then pulled the knife out, letting it fall to the floor. Polly looked between him and Jamie, her face filled with horror.

“You missed,” the guard rasped. “I could still kill her.”

“Stop, Jamie!” Polly pleaded. She turned to the guard. “I think you’d better listen to him.”

“I’m not listening to him,” the guard growled. “Or you.” He tugged her hair again, this time with enough force to make her scream.

“Do ye really want to risk it?” Jamie drew his last knife from beneath his arm. “After last time?”

To his surprise, the guard let go of Polly’s hair to turn and flee, his shrieks for help echoing around the cavern. Jamie’s heart was still pounding with fury from the sound of Polly’s scream, and he chased after him, raising the knife as if to throw it. To his annoyance, Polly managed to squirm around and kick him as he passed, making him trip to a halt. “Jamie! That’s enough.”

The blood roaring in Jamie’s ears faded away as she spoke, and he nodded, shoulders slumping. “Aye, I can’t catch him.” Sticking the knife back in its sheath, he wandered over to collect the one that had missed its mark. “He’ll be back,” he told Polly knowledgeably. “And with friends. We have tae get out of here.”

“Yes, you’re right.” Polly seemed to be struggling for words. She had just suffered quite a fright, Jamie thought. It was only natural for her to be a little shellshocked. “Jamie, why -” She swallowed thickly, looking away from the blood splattered on the floor beside her, the knife dropped in the midst of it all. “Why were you carrying so many knives?”

“I always carry them. It’s good tae have a few spares.” Returning to her side and picking up the bloodied knife, Jamie started to saw through the ropes that bound her wrists. “An’ it’s lucky for ye that I did, eh?”

“Mmhm. I suppose so.”

Jamie looked up at her, properly registering the fear on her face. For the first time, he realised that some of that fear was directed at him. “Did I frighten ye?”

She shrugged. “I was more afraid of it going wrong.” Her smile was strained, and he knew she was lying. “But it didn’t.”

Jamie shook his head. “No, I can see that I frightened ye.” The ropes fell away, their ends stained red by the blade. A few of the loose fibres brushed over Polly’s hands, trailing blood over her skin. “He’ll be fine, ye know. I hardly scratched him.”

“But that’s what I _mean_ , Jamie, you can’t just go around throwing knives at people -”

“It’s worked for me so far -” Footsteps were pounding nearby, and they turned towards the sound in unison. “We have to go,” Jamie whispered. “It’s no’ safe.” He grinned a little shakily. “I can’t throw knives at all of them.”

“ _Jamie_.” Polly sighed, letting him heave her upright. “I told you, you can’t – what would the Doctor say?”

“I think the Doctor would prefer to have ye alive than dead,” Jamie said grimly. “An’ I think he knows that sometimes ye have to do things that maybe aren’t – aren’t the _right_ thing, exactly, but it works.” Despite his words, he glanced down at the blood on the floor, regretful bile rising in his throat. There had been no choice, he told himself. But perhaps he ought to have paused for a moment beforehand, thought up some better plan, something the Doctor would have done. It would have been alright had he only been risking his own skin, but… He shuddered at the thought of having been so reckless with Polly’s life. “He’ll be waiting for us, at any rate.”

Polly nodded, tearing her own eyes away from the bloodied knife, still in Jamie’s hand. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”


End file.
